Topeka Home Show's growth matches that of area houses

Friday

Feb 21, 2014 at 3:29 PM

Angela Deines

TOPEKA – Whether it’s getting free advice, getting some ideas or just getting out of the house for a few hours in the waning weeks of winter, the annual Topeka Home Show has provided a way for local home repair and home improvement-related businesses to connect with northeast Kansans since 1962.

Neil Carlson, owner of Plumbing by Carlson, a company started by his father, Bob, in 1957, said locations for the home show have varied over its 52-year history.

Carlson, also a former associate director of the Topeka Home Builders Association, or THBA, said the annual event started in a small building on what is now the Kansas Expocentre grounds with just about two dozen vendors. He said the show was held at the former White Lakes Mall for several years and for one year, was at a hangar at Forbes Field. The event then moved to Agriculture Hall at 17th and Topeka Boulevard as the number of exhibitors continued to grow.

"It (Agriculture Hall) was too small for us by then," Carlson said. "Then we got into Heritage Hall. We filled it."

Once the Kansas Expocentre opened in 1987, Carlson said the Topeka Home Show has been held there ever since and now has nearly 200 local, state and national vendors.

Carlson said in the first few years, local businesses weren’t charged a fee to have a table at the home show and had simple displays. After a THBA committee visited the Wichita home show and a national home show, Carlson said the committee made a push to get the businesses to invest in more sophisticated exhibits to showcase their products.

"We encouraged people to do more than just a table," he said, "just to have a better presentation. And it worked. It’s really become a decent show."

Carlson said the more elaborate displays at the home show helped attendees visualize what could be done in their own homes, especially before the national home improvement stores opened in Topeka.

"We didn’t have the big box stores back then," he said. "We didn’t have many showrooms, either."

While the numbers of vendors and attendees have gone up and down over the years, the Topeka Home Show still remains a way for local contractors, remodelers, plumbers, heating and cooling experts and many others to connect to their potential customers.

"One of the benefits is to see the latest products and trends and interacting with someone about it," said Ivan Weichert, chief executive officer of the Topeka Home Builders Association, or THBA, since January. "We attract reputable people (vendors) who have been in business for a while."

Gary Brown, owner of Winston Brown Construction, 5600 S.W. 29th Street, in Topeka, St, Topeka has been a member of the THBA since the late 1970’s. He said he would often attend national home builders’ shows across the U.S. and then introduce the products and concepts at the Topeka home show.

"There were no box stores around at that time," Brown said. "It was the only place people could come to see new products. The big thing for the home show was that we brought things back to the Midwest."

Some of those new concepts, Brown said, were things like concrete siding, cabinet resurfacing, and composite deck materials. He said with the advent of the national home improvement companies opening stores in Topeka, attendees of the home show want ideas for what they want to do in their homes.

Brown said the annual event also gives people the personal contact with the vendors before deciding whether they want to hire them for a home improvement job.

"From the home show, they (attendees and vendors) both can associate a face with each other," he said. "It gives them (attendees) a chance to meet the people who are coming into their home."

Greg DeBacker, owner of DeBacker’s, Inc., 1520 S.E. 10th Avenue, in Topeka, said his grandfather and father started the heating, cooling and sheet metal company in 1949. He said he remembers working at the home show when he was still a student at Seaman High School in the early 1970’s.

"I gave away freebies and stuff like that," DeBacker said. "It was a way to show the latest products at the time. Whenever a new product came out, that would be our avenue for letting people know about it."

DeBacker said the annual home show has historically been a good venue for his family’s company to stay in touch and in front of Topekans and northeast Kansans.

"We see at lot of our old customers come through," he said. "It’s basically been a good will connection."

For some other people, DeBacker said the annual event has been a way to relieve winter’s cabin fever and get started on their home improvement projects.

"People get cooped up," he said. "This is a chance for them to get out."

Bryan Reiner, operations manager Heartland Door and Window, in Topeka, said Heartland was started in 1989 and has been a member of the Topeka Home Builders Association since 1996. He said since then, they have put much of their energy into a booth that displays their latest products.

"We use the home show to put our name out there," Reiner said. "We sell a lot more than just windows and garage doors. We spend a lot of time and energy into setting up the booth so people know what we do."

Cheryl Merrill, part owner of PDQ Construction, said for the past 10 years, the Topeka home show has helped grow the company that she helped start in 2003 with Mike Pressgrove and Rick Hudkins.

"We’ve gotten a lot of leads and a lot of work from the Topeka home show every year," Merrill said. "That gets us the most bang for our buck. Most of our work comes from word of mouth and the home show."

Merrill said the annual event not only allows potential customers to meet the vendors, but she said often competitors can get to know each other as well.

"It’s a really nice to meet the different contractors," she said. "Then you have a personal idea of who is insured and licensed and giving back to the community."

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